Odysseus
(called Ulysses in Latin) was the son of Laertes and was
the ruler of the island kingdom of Ithaca. He was one of
the most prominent Greek leaders in the Trojan War, and
was the hero of Homer's Odyssey. He was known for his
cleverness and cunning, and for his eloquence as a
speaker.

Odysseus
was one of the original suitors of Helen of Troy. When
Menelaus succeeded in winning Helen's hand in marriage,
it was Odysseus who advised him to get the other suitors
to swear to defend his marriage rights. However, when
Menelaus called on the suitors to help him bring Helen
back from Troy, Odysseus was reluctant to make good on
his oath. He pretended to have gone mad, plowing his
fields and sowing salt instead of grain. Palamedes placed
Odysseus' infant son in front of the plow, and Odysseus
revealed his sanity when he turned aside to avoid
injuring the child.

However
reluctant he may have been to join the expedition,
Odysseus fought heroically in the Trojan War, refusing to
leave the field when the Greek troops were being routed
by the Trojans, and leading a daring nocturnal raid in
company with Diomedes. He was also the originator of the
Trojan horse, the strategem by which the Greeks were
finally able to take the city of Troy itself. After the
death of Achilles, he and Ajax competed for Achilles'
magnificent armor; when Odysseus' eloquence caused the
Greeks to award the prize to him, Ajax went mad and
killed himself.

Odysseus'
return from Troy, chronicled in the Odyssey, took ten
years and was beset by perils and misfortune. He freed
his men from the pleasure-giving drugs of the
Lotus-Eaters, rescued them from the cannibalism of the
Cyclopes and the enchantments of Circe. He braved the
terrors of the underworld with them, and while in the
land of the dead Hades allowed Thiresias, Odysseus'
mother, Ajax and others to give him adivice on his next
journey. They gave him important advice about the cattle
of the sun (which Apollo herds), Scylla and Charybdis and
the Sirens.

From there
on the travels were harder for Odysseus, but they would
have been much worse of it wasn't for the help of the
dead. With this newly acquired knowledge, he steered them
past the perils of the Sirens and of Scylla and
Charybdis. He could not save them from their final folly,
however, when they violated divine commandments by
slaughtering and eating the cattle of the sun-god. As a
result of this rash act, Odysseus' ship was destroyed by
a thunderbolt, and only Odysseus himself survived.

He came
ashore on the island of the nymph Calypso, who made him
her lover and refused to let him leave for seven years.
When Zeus finally intervened, Odysseus sailed away on a
small boat, only to be shipwrecked by another storm. He
swam ashore on the island of the Phaeacians, where he was
magnificently entertained and then, at long last,
escorted home to Ithaca.

There were
problems in Ithaca as well, however. During Odysseus'
twenty-year absence, his wife, Penelope, had remained
faithful to him, but she was under enormous pressure to
remarry. A whole host of suitors were occupying her
palace, drinking and eating and behaving insolently to
Penelope and her son, Telemachus. Odysseus arrived at the
palace, disguised as a ragged beggar, and observed their
behavior and his wife's fidelity. With the help of
Telemachus and Laertes, he slaughtered the suitors and
cleansed the palace. He then had to fight one final
battle, against the outraged relatives of the men he had
slain; Athena intervened to settle this battle, however,
and peace was restored.

WHOLE
BUNCH OF ODYSSEUS FACTS
Based on the
Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology,
by
Carlos Parada

Odysseus
was king of Ithaca and leader of the Cephallenians
against Troy. He invented the construction of the WOODEN
HORSE as a stratagem to take Troy. As other ACHAEAN
LEADERS Odysseus was confronted, after the sack of Troy
with a hard return and sedition at home. On his return to
Ithaca he killed the many SUITORS OF PENELOPE, who had
been wasting his property during his twenty years long
absence, and for that massacre he was condemned to exile
by King Neoptolemus of Epirus.

The
Oath of Tyndareus.

When Helen
was to be married many suitors came from all Greece
wishing to win her hand, and among them Odysseus. King
Tyndareus, Helen's father or stepfather, feared that the
preference of one might provoke the enmity of the others,
and so Odysseus promised that, if Tyndareus would help
him to win the hand of Penelope, he would suggest a way
by which there would be no dispute among the suitors.
When Tyndareus agreed, promising to help him, Odysseus
told him to exact an oath from all the SUITORS OF HELEN
that they would defend the favoured bridegroom against
any wrong that might be done him in respect of his
marriage.

So when
Menelaus won the hand of Helen, all accepted it in virtue
of the oath, and thus Odysseus married Penelope, who was
the prize for such a wise advice.

But later,
when the seducer Paris took Helen from King Menelaus of
Sparta, the kings of Greece, being bound by the Oath of
Tyndareus, were forced, summoned by Menelaus and his
brother Agamemnon, to join the alliance which sailed from
Aulis to Troy in order to demand the restoration of Helen
and the property, either peacefully or by force.

The
Oath against Odysseus.

Thanks to
the idea of the oath Odysseus won Penelope, but when war
threatened against Troy, the same oath played against him
bounding him to join the coalition that was gathering at
Aulis. And as there are those who prefer quiet life at
home to any glory that war might give, Odysseus, being
one of those, was reluctant to join the army.

Conflict
with Palamedes.

It was
then that Palamedes, the inventor of the dice, came to
Ithaca to persuade Odysseus to join the expedition
against Troy. But Odysseus, not wishing to go to the war,
feigned madness. Palamedes, then, snatching Odysseus' son
Telemachus from Penelope's bosom, drew his sword as if he
would kill him, and fearing for the life of the child,
Odysseus confessed that his madness was pretended, and he
consented to go to war.

Death
of Palamedes.

Because
Palamedes, through his smart move, forced Odysseus to go
to war, he was later stoned to death through the
machinations of his victim Odysseus. For when a Trojan
was made prisoner, Odysseus compelled him to write a
letter of treasonable purport which seemed to be sent by
King Priam to Palamedes; and having buried gold in the
quarters of Palamedes, he dropped the letter in the camp.
Agamemnon read the letter, found the gold, and delivered
up Palamedes to be stoned as a traitor.

However,
it has also been said that Palamedes was drowned by
Odysseus and Diomedes, while he was fishing.

Embassies.

Odysseus
was part of the embassy which demanded the restoration of
Helen and the property from the Trojans, and he also was
among them who came to beg Achilles to return to the
fight, promising him the seven tripods, the seven women,
the seven cities and all the other gifts, including
Achilles' sweetheart Briseis, that Agamemnon offered
Achilles, should he left his wrath aside.

Fetches
the bow of Heracles, which Philoctetes now owns.

After the
death of Achilles and Hector Troy still could not be
taken. So new prophecies were uttered concerning the fall
of Troy, and the seer Calchas prophesied to the Achaeans
that Troy could not be taken unless they had the bow and
arrows of Heracles fighting on their side. On hearing
that, Odysseus and Diomedes (or some say Neoptolemus)
went to Philoctetes in Lemnos, and having by craft got
possession of the bow, they persuaded him to sail to
Troy.

Helenus
is forced to tell the Achaeans how Troy can be taken.

And then
Calchas said that only Helenus, the Trojan seer, knew the
oracles that protected the city. So Odysseus captured him
and, having brought him to the camp, the seer disclosed
the oracles, and following them Odysseus brought
Neoptolemus to Troy, and stole the Palladium from the
city.

Dispute
with Ajax.

When
Achilles died his arms were offered as a prize to the
bravest, and Ajax and Odysseus competed for them.
Odysseus was preferred by the judges, and, as a revenge,
Ajax planned an attack on his own army. But Athena drove
him mad, and he slaughtered the cattle with the herdsmen,
taking them for the Achaeans. And when he came to his
senses he slew himself.

The
WOODEN HORSE.

It was not
before Odysseus invented the WOODEN HORSE that Troy could
be taken. He is also found among the warriors that hid
inside the horse.

The
Ciconians

After the
war Odysseus wandered for ten years. He went first to the
land of the Ciconians in Thrace where he pillaged the
city of Ismarus, not sparing anyone except a priest of
Apollo called Maron, son of Evanthes, who reigned in
Marioneia.

Lotus-eaters

After the
Ciconians he sailed to the land of the Lotus-eaters. This
Lotus was a sweet fruit which caused him who tasted it to
forget everything. And as some of the crew ate from this
fruit Odysseus had to force them back to the ships, for
those who tasted the fruit preferred to stay with the
lotus-eaters forgetting everything about their way back
home.

Nobody.

And later
he sailed to the land of the CYCLOPES and there he and
his men were trapped by the cannibal Cyclops Polyphemus,
who promised Odysseus to eat him last as a reward for the
wine Odysseus had given him. But when the Cyclops, being
drunk, was asleep Odysseus blinded his single eye. When
Polyphemus saw himself blind, which is easier than it
sounds, he cried to the other CYCLOPES for help. But when
they came and asked who was hurting him, Polyphemus told
them" Nobody", because Odysseus had told him
that his name was "Nobody", and hearing that,
the other CYCLOPES retired.

The
Cyclops' unlucky fate caused the resentment of his father
Poseidon, who decided to make Odysseus' journey even
harder.

Happy
Aeolus

From there
Odysseus saile to the Aeolian Islands which were ruled by
happy Aeolus, whom Zeus appointed keeper of the winds.
This Aeolus is a favourite of the gods, and that is the
reason why his daily life consists of merry banquets in
the company of his wife and children. He generously
entertained Odysseus, and for his voyage gave him a bag
in which he had bound fast the winds.

Careless
captain and greedy crew.

However
when they were near Ithaca and could already see the
island, Odysseus fell asleep and his comrades, thinking
he carried gold from Troy in the bag that Aeolus had
given him, loosed it and unwittingly let the winds go
free. In this way the careless captain and his greedy
crew were driven back to the Aeolian Islands where
Odysseus, in the course of an embarrassing interview with
Aeolus, was denied the fair wind he asked for being
immediately expelled from the island.

Cannibals.

So instead
Odysseus came to the land of the Laestrygonians, who were
cannibals and there he lost all the ships with their
crews except his own. In this strange land nightfall and
morning are so close to each other that shepherds
bringing in their flocks at night are met by other
shepherds driving out their flocks at dawn.

Circe.

Afterwards
he came to the island of Aeaea where the witch met Circe
lived. Some time ago she had purified the ARGONAUTS for
the murder of Apsyrtus. But now when Odysseus arrived
Circe touched his comrades with a wand and turned them
into wolves, swine, asses and lions, their minds
remaining unchanged. But some say that she gave Odysseus'
comrades a potion and when they had drunk it off, she
touched them with her wand, and having turned them into
swine, she put them in the sties. In any case Odysseus
threatened her with his sword and she restored his
comrades, and later, when Odysseus left, she helped him
to find the way down to Hades where he should get
instructions from the seer Tiresias concerning his return
to Ithaca and his future fate.

ODYSSEUS
IN HADES.

Having
descended to Hades Odysseus made a blood offering in
order to attract the souls of the dead, not letting
anyone approach the blood of the animals he had
sacrificed before he had talked with Tiresias. Any soul
having access to the blood could hold a rational speech
with Odysseus, but those who were denied the blood would
leave him alone and disappear.

These are
those whom Odysseus met when he descended to Hades:

Achilles.On seeing Achilles' soul said Odysseus:

"...Achilles,
the most fortunate man that ever was or will
be...honoured as though you were a god...and now you are
a mighty prince among the dead. For you...Death should
have lost its sting." [Odysseus to Achilles]

But
Achilles replied:

"Do
not speak soothingly to me of death, Odysseus. I should
choose to serve as the serf of another, rather than to be
lord over the dead." [Achilles to Odysseus]

And after
that salutation Odysseus told him what had happened in
Troy after Achilles' death.

Agamemnon.Agamemnon described to Odysseus how he had been
murdered by Aegisthus and his own wife during a banquet.
His wife's treason inspired him to lecture Odysseus about
marriage:

"Never
be too gentle with your wife, nor show her all that is in
your mind." [Agamemnon to Odysseus]

And the
soul of the man who had always taken women through
violence dared to add:

"Women,
I tell you, are no longer to be trusted." [Agamemnon
to Odysseus]

Ajax.
Ajax still embittered by the defeat Odysseus
inflicted on him on account of the arms of Achilles,
refused to talk, and that is why Odysseus said to him:

"So
not even death itself could make you forget your anger
with me on account of those accursed arms."
[Odysseus to Ajax]

But Ajax
left without a word.

Alcmena.Mother of Heracles.

Anticlia.Odysseus was stirred to compassion when he saw
his mother's soul, for she was still alive when he left
Ithaca. And yet Odysseus did not allow the soul of his
own mother to approach the sacrificial blood, before he
had talked to Tiresias. But later when she was allowed to
approach, she told him news about his father Laertes, who
lived the life of a recluse and yearned for his return
home. Likewise she told him that the cause of her own
death had been her heartache for him.

Odysseus
tried to embrace her, but the ghost slipped through his
arms and as he cried to his mother in despair she
explained:

"We
no longer have sinews keeping the bones and flesh
together, but once the life-force has departed from our
bones, all is consumed by the heat of fire, and the soul
slips away like a dream..." [Anticlia 1 to Odysseus]

Antilochus.Son of Nestor and leader of the Pylians against
Troy. He was killed in the war by Hector or by Memnon.

Antiope.Mother of Amphion and Zethus.

Ariadne.Daughter of Minos, who helped Theseus to find
his way out of the labyrinth. She was deserted by the man
she saved but Dionysus loved her, though some say that in
such a way that he had Artemis kill her, which means that
Ariadne died of a sickness.

Chloris.Chloris survived the killing of the NIOBIDS and,
having married Neleus, became Queen of Pylos. She is the
mother of Nestor.

Elpenor.
Elpenor was one of Odysseus' companions. He fell
from the roof of Circe's house and broke his neck. As he
had been left behind unburied, he now asked Odysseus to
bury him on his return to the island of Aeaea.

Heracles.Odysseus saw in Hades just the wraith of
Heracles, for the real Heracles is always banqueting with
the OLYMPIANS, after having been made immortal and
married Hebe in heaven.

Iphimedia.Mother of the ALOADS, who had the ambition of
piling Mount Ossa on Olympus, and Mount Pelion on Ossa,
and in that way reach up to heaven.

Jocasta.Jocasta, also called Epicasta, is mother and
wife of Oedipus. She hanged herself obsessed by the idea
of having married her own son.

Leda.Mother of Helen, Clytaemnestra and the DIOSCURI.

Maera.

Megara.Heracles's wife.

Minos.
Odysseus saw this former king of Crete sitting
with a gold sceptre in his hand, delivering judgement to
the dead.

Orion.Odysseus saw Orion driving together over the
field of asphodel wild beasts which he had slain, holding
in his hands a club of bronze, that could not be broken.

Patroclus.

Phaedra.Wife of Theseus who fell in love with her
stepson.

Procris.Wife of Cephalus. She was killed accidentally by
her husband. Cephalus was son of Deion, son of Aeolus,
son of Hellen, son of Deucalion, the man who survived the
Flood. Cephalus, after whom was named the island of
Cephallenia, which is a part of Odysseus' kingdom, is
related to Odysseus, for he is father of Arcisius, father
of Laertes, who is Odysseus' father. Procris 2 is
Odysseus' grand grandmother.

Sisyphus.Odysseus saw him being punished by rolling a
stone with his hands and head in an effort to heave it
over the top of a hill, but as he pushes it to the top it
rebounds backward.

Tantalus.Odysseus also saw impious Tantalus, who is
punished by not being able to eat or drink as the water
in the lake dries out and the fruits in the trees are
lifted by the wind each time he tries to reach either.

Tiresias.The seer warned Odysseus of Poseidon's wrath and
other difficulties he would meet
during his journey. He also told him about the greedy
suitors, who were eating up his
stores in Ithaca and offering wedding gifts to his wife.
And he also told him what would happen after the death of
the suitors and how death would come to him.

Tityus.Odysseus saw this son of Gaia being punished in
the Underworld for having attacked Leto, mother of Apollo
and Artemis. There a pair of vultures eat his liver and
he is powerless to drive them off.

Tyro.Mother of Neleus and King Pelias.

The
SIRENS.After having touched again at Circe's island of
Aeaea Odysseus sailed past the Sirens as Circe had
predicted. As he wished to hear their lovely song, he
stopped the ears of his comrades with wax, and ordered
that he should himself be bound to the mast. And being
persuaded by the Sirens to linger, he begged to be
released, but they bound him tighter, until they had
sailed past.

Some say
that this was the end of the Sirens, for it had been
predicted that they would die when a ship passed them
unharmed.

Scylla
and Charybdis.In sailing past the cliff of Scylla, she
snatched some of his comrades, and gobbled them up. When
the ship broke up, Odysseus clung to the mast and drifted
to Charybdis. But when Charybdis sucked down the mast, he
was saved by clinging to a fig-tree that grew over the
whirlpool. There he waited until he saw the mast drifting
again, and he cast himself on it, and was carried away.

Refuses
immortality.So he came to the island where Calypso 3 lived.
This goddess kept Odysseus imprisoned in her cave for
seven years and offered him immortality but he refused
wishing above all to come back home to Ithaca and
Penelope.

Meets
Nausicaa in Phaeacian beach.But when Hermes, sent by Zeus, ordered Calypso
to let Odysseus go he made a raft and sailed away until
he was washed up naked on the shore of the Phaeacians,
where Nausicaa, the daughter of King Alcinous, was
washing the clothes. When Odysseus begged her protection,
she brought him to the king, who entertained him, and
sent him away with a convoy to Ithaca, after having heard
Odysseus' account of
the stories we are now reading.

While
Penelope weaves her suitors feast at Odysseus' expense.But on arriving to Ithaca, twenty years after
his departure, Odysseus found his property and land
wasted, because, believing that he was dead, many suitors
wished to marry Penelope and, living in the palace of
Odysseus, consumed his herds at their feasts during his
absence. Waiting for Odysseus, Penelope was compelled to
promise to her suitors that she would wed when the shroud
of Laertes was finished. But she wove it for three years,
weaving it by day and undoing it by night.

The
suitors shot with the Bow.The SUITORS OF PENELOPE were almost one hundred,
but somehow Odysseus managed to kill them all with his
bow.

This bow
had Prince Eurytus of Oechalia received from Apollo, and
when his son Iphitus met Odysseus, he gave him the bow,
which he had received from his father. This bow Odysseus,
when going to war, would never take with him, but let it
lay at home.

Penelope
delivered to her suitors the bow of Odysseus, and she
said that she would marry him who bent the bow. And when
none of them could bend it, Odysseus took it and shot
down the suitors, being helped by his son Telemachus,
Emaeus and Philoetius.

Emaeus was
Odysseus' servant and swineherd. On his arrival to Ithaca
Odysseus came to him in the guise of a beggar and learned
from him the state of affairs in his home. Philoetius,
who also helped to kill the suitors, was a master-herdman
in Ithaca.

Found
to have gone too far.Because of this massacre Odysseus was accused by
the kinfolk of the slain suitors, and then he submitted
the case to the judgment of King Neoptolemus of Epirus,
who condemned him to exile. Some suppose Neoptolemus
judged in this way because he wanted to get possession of
the island of Cephallenia.

After
killing the SUITORS OF PENELOPE Odysseus went to
Thesprotia in Epirus and there offered a sacrifice
following the instructions he received in the Underworld
from Tiresias. It is also told that Callidice , Queen of
the Thesprotians, urged him to stay as king. Odysseus
married Callidice and had by her a son Polypoetes, to
whom he gave the kingdom when he returned to Ithaca.

Others say
that Odysseus went to Aetolia and there he married the
daughter of Thoas (King of Pleuron and Calydon who had
been the leader of the Aetolians against Troy), and had
by her a son Leontophonus.

Death
at last.When Telegonus learned from his mother Circe
that he was a son of Odysseus, he sailed in search of
him. And having come to Ithaca, he drove away some of the
cattle, and when Odysseus defended them, Telegonus
wounded him with the spear he had in his hands, which was
barbed with the spine of a stingray, and Odysseus died of
the wound. And when Telegonus recognised him, he bitterly
lamented.